Which best to use?

I was lucky enough to get a new greenhouse 2 seasons ago ( amazing how much money you save having given up the fags!). I have beds in it 20ft long by 3 ft wide. I like growing most of my Tomatoes in the beds rather than pots and have had, eventually, a great crop this season. That's now 2 years of growing Tomatoes in the same soil so think it time to remove some of the soil and replace it with fresh growing medium, the question is with what? To exchange with new topsoil would be a hell of a lot of hard digging which doesn't appeal with my elbows! I can add either well rotted leaf mould, garden compost or horse manure but not sure which would be best? or maybe a mixture of all 3? Perhaps the horse manure would have too much nitrogen? The current growing medium is mainly topsoil but has had over the 2 seasons some compost and manure added to it but not that much. I plan to remove about 6 to 9 inches which will go on my veg patch. If it makes a difference to the answer I feed the Tomatoes regularly with Chempac Tom food after 1st trusses set.

 

Your answer is simple and is contained within the question !

Swap it out with veg patch soil.

Steve...

 

Thanks Steve but that would be really hard work especially atm having had torrential rain. The leaf mould, manure, and the compost are A going a begging and B are much lighter to deal with and easier to dig than moving topsoil from my veg patch. I don't shy away from hard graft but don't like making extra work for myself if there is another solution. If nobody can advise which of the 3 are best them I'll use a bit of all 3. The topsoil in the greenhouse beds is about 2 1/2 ft deep ( I know because I put it in them!) so if I dig the 3 well in with the remaining topsoil that hopefully should be ok...famous last words.

 

Great @JWK I did discard as much of the soil attached to the Tomatoes as I could when I pulled them up last week.I had intended to sort of do what you are advising re concentrating on the planting holes, I then discovered that the roots of the bigger type Tomatoes had travelled some distances. However, I'll do what you suggest and also re leaf mould and not bother with the other 2 options. I did exactly what you suggested re swapping the Cucumber and Tomatoes positioning this season. Snag is I only grew 2 Cucumber plants as that was plenty for our needs I grew 25 Tomato plants!..yes I love them. I had a greenhouse for many years at a previous house and always gave the soil a good dose of Jeyes but can't remember when I did it. I know I haven't given the new greenhouse an application since it was built 2 years ago. Would you recommend dosing the soil once I have exchanged some for leaf mould over the next few days or wait until nearer the time for replanting veg in the greenhouse next Spring? Thanks for you good advice as always!

 

Just back from buying a tin of Jeyes. The sun is out so off to get cleaning and dosing. Thanks very much @JWK . I was chatting to a professional gardeners last night and mentioned about going off to buy some Jeyes this morning he said " Jeyes was used for just about everything til European health and safety came along and stopped it being used for useful things!! It was for financial reasons, not safety". He told me the vast majority of weed killers/insecticides and fungicides which have been banned weren't dangerous at all it was that companies who produced them weren't prepared to have to go through the hideously expensive testing regimes now required so just stopped their manufacture. As a professional he can't advise people to use Jeyes which he says is daft. He assists people at 3 huge allotments yet can't tell them to use the product despite knowing it is excellent.